Amateur Golf

The 112th U.S. Amateur Championship tees off on Monday at Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado.

Eleven Canadians are in the field including Team Canada's Albin Choi of Toronto, Ont. and Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont.

Corey Connors (Listowel, Ont.), Jean-Philip Cornellier (Laval, Que), Stephane Dubois (Brantford, Ont.) will also be competing in the prestigious Amateur.

Rounding out the Canadian Contingent is Alexis Piacente Gemme (Montreal, Que), Chris Hemmerich (Kitchener, Ont.), Taylor Pendrith (Richmond Hill, Ont.), Daniel Pow (Calgary, Alta.) and Justin Shin (Pitt Meadows, B.C.)

Cherry Hills Country Club will be set up at 7,409 yards and will play to a par of 35-36–71. The companion course, CommonGround Golf Course - which will co-host the first two rounds of stroke play qualifying - will be set up at 7,378 yards and will play to a par of 36-34–70.

This is the 112th U.S. Amateur Championship. The U.S. Amateur Championship is the oldest golf championship in the United States, one day older than the U.S. Open. Except for an eight-year period, 1965-1972, when it was stroke play, the Amateur has been a match-play championship.

Many of the great names of professional golf, such as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lanny Wadkins, Craig Stadler, Jerry Pate, Mark O'Meara, Hal Sutton, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, grace the Havemeyer Trophy.

It was, however, legendary amateur Robert T. Jones Jr., who first attracted national media coverage and sparked spectator attendance at the U.S. Amateur. Jones captured the championship five times (1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1930). His 1930 victory was a seminal moment in golf history when, at Merion Cricket Club in Ardmore, Pa., Jones completed the Grand Slam, winning the four major American and British championships in one year.

Sixty-six years later, in 1996, Tiger Woods attracted similar interest and enthusiasm at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Ore., when he won a record third straight U.S. Amateur, having registered 18 consecutive match-play victories. In 1994, Woods, at 18, had first entered the record book as the youngest ever to win the Amateur Championship, following his three consecutive Junior Amateur titles (1991-1993). That record has since been broken twice, first by 17-year-old Danny Lee in 2008 at Pinehurst No. 2 in the Village of Pinehurst, N.C., and then in 2009, when 17-year-old Byeong-Hun An won at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., with a 7-and-5 victory over Ben Martin, of Greenwood, S.C.

The winner of the US Amateur receives exemptions into the U.S. Open and British Open championships.

Monday and Tuesday start times can be found here.